Potato chips are popular snack items that typically are prepared by frying potato slices in hot oil until the moisture content of the slices is reduced to about two percent by weight or less. Fried potato chips prepared using conventional methods may have an oil or fat content of from about 29 to about 44 percent by weight.
In recent years, a significant consumer interest has developed in weight control and reduced intake of fats and oils. Because of the high fat or oil content of conventionally prepared potato chips, a substantial portion of the total calories therein present derives from the fat or oil in the product.
In response to this consumer interest, potato chip manufacturers have sought to produce a potato chip which retains the flavor and texture characteristics of conventional potato chips, but with a significantly reduced fat content.
One example of low fat potato chip processing is taught in British Patent Specification No. 1,519,049 entitled "Improvements in or Relating to Methods and Apparatus for the Preparation of Deep-Fried Sliced Potatoes, So-called Potato Crips." This reference discloses frying potato slices in a manner wherein the frying oil temperature to which the slices are exposed is either maintained at a constant value or is increased during frying, afterwhich the fried potato slices are exposed to superheated steam to de-oil the slices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,537,786, entitled "Method of Preparing Low Oil Fried Potato Chips" discloses partially frying potato slices to a moisture content of between 3 and 15 weight percent, and then employing hot air blasts at between 250.degree. F. and 350.degree. F. to reduce the oil content of the par-fried potato slices while also finish-drying the slices to a moisture content of below two weight percent to produce low oil potato chips.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,625 entitled "Process for Preparing Low Oil Potato Chips" instructs the reader to par-fry potato slices to a moisture content of ten to twenty-five weight percent, then to de-oil the slices in the presence of saturated steam blasts, and finally to dry the de-oiled slices with superheated steam; all processing occurring in an essentially oxygen free (&lt;300 ppm) environment to yield low oil potato chips. This disclosure notably emphasizes the need to conduct all of the post-frying processing in an essentially oxygen free atmosphere.
Still other proposals for reducing the amount of oil in potato chips include British Patent Specification No. 1,133,929 for a method of making potato chips by frying potato slices at about 300.degree. F. to remove part of the aqueous moisture, and finish drying the slices in dry air at subatmospheric pressure; U.S. Pat. No. 3,353,962 for frying slices to partially remove the aqueous moisture, and finish drying the slices with radiant energy; British Patent Specification No. 1,034,035 for frying potato slices to partially remove the aqueous moisture, and thereafter finish drying the chips in a layer with hot air moving upwards through the layer at low velocity; U.S. Pat. No. 3,402,049 for preparing low fat potato chips wherein raw potato slices are soaked in an edible fat, the fat is drained, and the potato slices are subjected to an elevated temperature to surface-fry and dehydrate the potato slices; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,510 for exposing both surfaces of monolayered potato slices to contact with a gaseous atmosphere under drying conditions to reduce the aqueous moisture content of the slices to about 30-65% by weight, contacting the partially dried potato slices with steam under conditions that avoid rehydration of the slices, and frying the steam-treated potato slices to provide potato chips of relatively low oil content.
Additional proposals for processing low oil potato chips are known to those familiar with the art. Still, despite the numerous proposals for reducing the oil content of potato chips, low oil potato chips prepared using previously known processes often have one or more drawbacks that may include undesirable texture, flavor or color characteristics and shortened shelf-life. Also, the previously known processes for preparing low oil potato chips generally are not economically feasible for large scale commercial potato chip production. Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for an economical and efficient process for producing high quality low oil potato chips.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a process for the production of low oil potato chips.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a low oil potato chip process that provides individual control over the processing variables that influence the final product characteristics.
These and other objects of the present invention will become evident to one skilled in the art from the below description of the invention and the appended claims.